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This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 131, the dangers of Public Blog Networks. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because a lot of people are uncertain of the difference between public blog portfolios and private blog portfolios. So in this episode, that's what we're going to talk about. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. But first, some announcements. New episodes come out at 9:00am Central Standard Time on Wednesday. That's on the podcast platforms. If you're listening on YouTube, it's going to be a little bit after that. If you like the podcast on YouTube, please please subscribe. If you leave a comment on YouTube, I try to respond that day, but sometimes it's not until the next day. If you have a question for me, you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com and I will try to answer it. If you'd like to ask a question to the Grumpy SEO Guy community, you can do so@Reddit.com r grumpyseoguy if you have a complicated question, you can email me and we can talk about setting up a zoom advisory call. And if you'd like to support the podcast, you can do so@patreon.com grumpyseoguy and you should, because it's the greatest source of SEO information anywhere. But you don't have to. So let's get on to the topic. I want to start by defining private blog network and public blog network. So we mentioned private blog networks a lot on this podcast, right? A private blog network is when you build your own portfolio of authoritative websites and use those to link to the websites that you want to rank, okay? Because the most important ranking factor is authority, and authority only comes from backlinks, okay? And websites with higher authority provide more authority in their backlinks. So private blog network is when you don't tell anybody about it. Okay? A public blog network is the same idea. But actually, let me clarify right here, because sometimes I'm saying private blog portfolio, and sometimes I'm saying private blog network. They're basically the same thing, and the two words are used together. Most people call it a private blog network. Pbn, okay? But technically, that's not a good idea. We like to say private blog portfolio. And the reason is because a portfolio is just a collection of websites, but a network is a collection of websites that are linked to together, and it's not smart to link your sites together, okay? So they both have similar meaning, okay? But I'm gonna say them either way. I just want you to know that I'm talking about the same thing, basically. Anyways, so there are private blog networks, and there are public blog networks. A public blog network is a blog network that is available to the public, okay? So, for example, you have a private blog network. It's private. You don't tell people about it. You can use it to rank sites that you want to rank, okay? And you don't tell anyone about it. So no one knows about it. It's. That's great. Okay? A public blog network is a blog network that is publicly available. People know about it. Random people can buy backlinks on it. Okay? That's a public blog network. There are a lot of problems with public blog networks. And I would say that once a network becomes public, it is done. Okay? Some people will disagree with me on this. That's fine. But it's done. Not immediately, okay? But soonish. Depending on what happens, there's a few things that can happen. One, it can be discovered by the search engines, and then it's done, okay? Because it's gonna get de indexed. Two, it can be penalized, which is, you know, kind of the same thing. Or three, it can become a link farm. Okay? A link farm, as you know, is a website with too many outbound links. Okay? We talk about link farms in the previous episode. I will post that episode in the description. So listen, a public. Let me. Let me take a step back. Whenever you see. Okay. Actually how do I say this? So a public blog network is a blog network that to some extent is available to the public. If you can go to a forum and buy backlinks, that is to some extent a public blog network. If you see a list of websites on. Maybe somebody has a website where they're selling SEO services and you see a list of websites that you can buy backlinks on, that is absolutely a public blog network, I would definitely avoid that, okay? I would definitely not buy those backlinks, okay? Because if they are public, everyone's going to know about them and it's going to lose its effectiveness, okay? And there is a good chance that search engines are out there looking for these kinds of networks because these are, you know, maybe a little questionable area of SEO. But the search engines don't want people to manipulate the results, okay? And the purpose of these blog portfolios is to manipulate the results. So they're probably out there trying to find them. And I might tell you something about that later on if I remember. So a lot of people email me and they say, hey, grumpy SEO guy, where can I find real backlinks? Where are the marketplaces and the forums where I can buy real backlinks from great sellers? I've looked on all the marketplaces I know about, and they're all junk. Where can I buy the legitimate backlinks? Okay, first of all, that doesn't exist. There are no forums that are only. That only have good backlink sellers. Let me tell you why. As soon as somebody builds that forum, it will be full of spammers, okay? Like, as soon as that forum is available, it will be full of spammers, not only from the sellers, but from the buyers, okay? So just, just, just, just trust me. It's pretty standard knowledge that there's a lot of charlatans in the SEO industry, okay? And so many SEO marketplaces are full of charlatans, right? I said on another episode that I think 99% of SEO people are scammers. And I still think that because I've spent time on SEO forums a long time ago, okay? So one of the ways that people try to help this problem is there are some SEO marketplaces where if you are a vendor, you have to be approved by a mod before you can post. And so what that usually means is you have to provide your SEO package to the mod. And if it's a real thing, they see that you actually, you know, did link building or whatever, then they will approve you and you are able to sell on that forum or on that marketplace. Okay, so sounds like a good idea, right? What you should do, if you are interested in this, is go look through the threads and go look through those forums and see how many people say they got ripped off. Okay? Look, I'm not saying that all SEO vendors are bad. I would encourage you to look through these conversations in the marketplaces and see if you think they are a good deal. Anyways, here's the point. Let's talk more about public link networks, okay? Because when something is being advertised to the public, it becomes a public link network, okay? When something is being advertised to the public, that is a public link network, okay? So look, I understand that it's very difficult to find good backlinks, okay? Which, by the way, is the reason we recommend DIY on this podcast and is the reason why we have many episodes explaining how to actually create a private blog portfolio, okay? Because you can't really find good backlinks for sale. Really? You can't. Look, if there was a good backlink vendor or a good backlink marketplace or a good backlink service or whatever, I would just say, hey, go use these people. But there's not. That's the reason we tell you how to do it. That's the reason we make our own, okay? So. But it's very. It's very. It's very difficult to find them. Like, I think the hardest, honestly, the hardest part of SEO is finding good backlinks, which, again, is perfectly understandable because backlinks are the biggest ranking factor, okay? Authority is the biggest ranking factor. Authority is provided by backlinks. So, of course, backlinks are the biggest ranking factor, but it's not just about backlinks. It's about the quality of the backlinks, okay? So, I mean, it makes sense that people have a hard time finding backlinks, but they also sometimes think that, oh, I just need to get some backlinks and then I'll rank. No, no, because remember, SEO is a competition, not a checklist. You don't need some backlinks in order to rank. What you need is more authority than your competition. So the first thing you should do is be looking into your competition, not trying to buy as many backlinks as possible, okay? And before you buy backlinks, you should understand the difference between good backlinks and bad backlinks, which we have numerous episodes on. And I'll put links in the description. So, look, there's four ways to get backlinks, right? This is a review. One, do nothing and let People link to you. Okay, that's cool. Number two, you can buy backlinks, but you shouldn't buy them before you know the difference between good backlinks and bad backlinks. Three, you can do link outreach and guest posting, which you're probably familiar with. Four, you can build your own. Okay. We have episodes that explain these four in detail. I will put links in the description, but I would be very cautious about buying any backlinks that are publicly available. Okay. Because for many reasons, one of which is public link sellers generally will sell to anybody. Okay. Now, you may have heard me talk before about we have some certain industries that we will not take on as SEO clients, but a lot of public backlink sellers don't care because they just want to make as much as they can. So, yeah, you might buy a backlink, and then you get somebody in a shady industry who's got a link right next to you. Well, maybe that's not the best website to get a backlink from. Right. If somebody links to a shady website and they also link to you, that can hurt you. So you need to be careful of that. You also need to make sure that they're taking precautions, and if they're offering it to the public, they're not taking precautions. Okay. And you need to make sure that it's not a link farm. Remember, a link farm is a website with too many OBLs, outbound links. A website that links to too many people, especially on the same page, is a link farm. Okay. So I would just tell you to be aware of people that are trying too hard to sell you backlinks or publicly available ones. I know there's a lot of. I'm not gonna name any, but I know there are services out there. You can go to their websites and buy different types of backlinks and, you know, whatever, but I would screen them very, very hard. And the only way to do that is to understand how it works yourself, and then you will know what questions to ask. Okay, so. Oh, here's the story I was going to tell you. So a long time ago. I can't remember how long it was a long time ago. I remember where I was living at the time. That's how I know it was a long time ago. There was a. I'm not going to name anybody. There was an SEO service that promoted itself as being, you know, hidden from the search engines or something. Like, they will never find our network. Right. And so there's a very trendy search engine that you've probably heard of. And There was a person who worked for that search engine who you've probably heard of, and this person posted a tweet and it said. Basically it just said like. It said something like the name of the service, and then it said something like, can't be found by the search engines, huh? Or something like that. I don't remember the exact, like, words that were used, but you. You get the point. Basically, they detected this network, and I believe the entire network got de indexed. And then everybody was mad. Well, it was a publicly available network. What did you think was going to happen? They were advertising it. They're advertising. They were advertising it hard, okay? They're advertising it. It was a public network. Public networks get found out. They get discovered. When it. When a network becomes public, it's finished, okay? So if you want good quality backlinks from a pbn, you have two options. One, you have to know somebody who has a real private blog network, which is very hard to find those people because they don't advertise, okay? Remember, as soon as you advertise, that's a public blog network, okay? So you need to find somebody who doesn't advertise. It's very tough. It's very tough. Okay? Or number two, you can build your own. That's how you get a private blog network. You build your own, or you are in discussions with somebody who has their own. That's how you do it. There is no third option. Okay, well, where. Because I feel like people are gonna be like, where can I buy one? Tell me, Dude, I answered that question at the beginning of this episode. People ask me that all the time. There is no secret marketplace for real PBN sellers and good SEO vendors. It doesn't exist. As soon as somebody makes a new marketplace, it's full of spammers. It is full of spammers immediately, okay? Because this is how the SEO industry runs, okay? Like, we've. We've. We've talked about this before. SEO is a no barriers to entry industry, which means whoever wants to can say they're an SEO expert and can sell SEO services. There's no. There's no way around that, okay? There's no certifications. There's no degrees. There's no anything. So anyone in the world can say they're an SEO expert, okay? That's why so many people are unhappy with their SEO agencies, because most of them don't know what they're talking about. And most of them just sell you nonsense or just write you content because they think content is king. And if you write good content, you will rank and you won't. And that's why you're listening this podcast, because you know that that's not how it works. So anyone in the world can say they're an SEO expert. So as soon as there's a new forum where you can sell good SEO services, it's going to be full of spammers. It's going to be full of spammers, okay? So this is not a thing. And I. And I apologize, because, again, that'd be cool. But there's no reason. There's no reason to do it anyways. I hope this makes sense. Like, as soon as somebody publicly advertises a blog portfolio, it is public, okay? It is public. It's not gonna work anymore. And here's another thing to think about. Let's pretend, all right? There was a domain where you could buy really good backlinks. Like, this is the business where you can buy really good, good backlinks, okay? What would happen? Everybody would buy backlinks from them, and then the competitive advantage would be gone. Okay? You guys understand that, right? Like, I feel like we talk about this a lot in this podcast. Like, in order to be advantageous in SEO, something has to be rare and it has to be helpful. Okay? So if there's something that is easy to do, everybody would do it, and then it would stop helping everybody. Does that. Does that make sense? For example, if there is a special, like, you know, header tag or something that you could use on your site, everyone would do it, and then it would stop being an advantage. It would become normal. Okay? Normalized is the word that you're looking for right there. Anyway, so if there were a place to buy the good backlinks, people would know about it, right? So it wouldn't be private, it would be public. And then everybody would buy the backlinks, and then there would be. And then any advantage that you get from it would be gone because everybody would have the same good quality backlinks. Okay? This is why private networks are the solution to the problem. Okay? I don't know how to explain this. When you build a private blog network, no one knows what you're doing. And you have an advantage that no one else can have because you link to the sites that you are trying to rank. No one else can use those websites except for you. Okay? That's how a private blog portfolio works. But so anyways, I hope. I hope this makes sense. Be extremely careful if you are considering buying backlinks from a public source, okay? Be extremely careful. Oh, and the last thing I was going to say. I think I already said this though. Sometimes people will post a list of sites that they are selling backlinks on. Do not buy from that. Do not buy from that business. Because if the sites are posted publicly, the search engines are going to know about them. And if the search engines know backlinks are being sold on these sites, they're going to be either de indexed or penalized. Okay, so it's not going to help you. When link networks are public, they stop working eventually. Not immediately necessarily. If you've bought links from a public network before, I'm sure they're gonna be fine, you know, for a while. But like, there are integral problems to public blog networks and that's why we don't use them. And that's why you shouldn't use them either. Let me know what questions you have. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this podcast, please, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders. Because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder. And it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com Grumpy Seouguy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode. Sam.